A string of low scores combined with the nearly three-year-long century drought resulted in Virat Kohli taking a clean break from cricket itself last month after the England tour. In Kohli’s own words, this was the first time he didn’t touch a cricket bat for this long in a decade.
As is the case every time he walks out to bat, the anticipation around Kohli’s return was sky high. And what better to announce that he’s back than a clash against old rivals Pakistan at the Asia Cup 2022?
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Well, the comeback nearly went as per the plan but Kohli did play a vital innings of 35 runs to help set the base for India’s thrilling five-wicket win. A did better against Hong Kong – hitting his first international half-century since February this year.
During a chat with his India teammate Suryakumar Yadav, Kohli said the six-week long break has meant he returned to competitive cricket ‘mentally fresh’.
“I came off a decent break – six weeks is a long break especially at the international level, but I came mentally fresh. I really enjoyed my batting in the last game as well [vs Pakistan] against a quality attack and kind of got the pace of wicket (vs Hong Kong) here (Dubai),” Kohli said of his innings against Hong Kong.
Kohli though is still to find the trademark fluency with which he batted at his peak. On Wednesday, he was more than happy to take the backseat and make sure he was there till the end after seeing the kind of form Suryakumar was in.
“I knew my job is to kind of stabilize the innings and build a partnership with whoever I play, and in between, when the situation allows me, then take a risk and try hit a boundary here and there,” Kohli said.
He continued, “But, again when you (Suryakumar) came in, I told you I am going to keep going, but the moment you started and gave me clear indication of how you are feeling, my role immediately changed back to holding one end so as you said, you could go out and express yourself, almost every ball. So that is something I enjoy doing, staying in there when I set; so even if, god forbid, you did not got those runs, I could take the chance or we have Rishabh (Pant) in or another game we have Hardik (Pandya), Dinesh (Karthik) or Jaddu (Ravindra Jadeja) to come in.”
Kohli said for him milestones don’t matter and he plays with the mindset of doing whatever it takes to help the team’s cause.
“I was just applying whatever knowledge I have accumulated over the years for the benefit of the team and it was good to get couple of go game where I felt good with my batting. For me milestone or number of runs are irrelevant, it is how you feel when you bat, and I felt very good,” he said.
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